A cover of Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” (2017) with a modulation around 2:40. The original might have six billion views, but this cover adds something very new.
From Jonny May’s website: “Teaching piano is one of my greatest joys, and over the past 15 years, I’ve helped over ten thousand students take their piano playing to the next level.” He performed as a Main Street Disneyland pianist for over nine years and has over 30 million hits people with his Youtube videos.
David Bowie released a 1985 collaboration with composer and guitarist Pat Metheny for the soundtrack of the movie The Falcon and the Snowman, including this standout track, “This Is Not America.” Modulation around 1:22.
The 1972 Brazilian jazz classic “Aguas de Marco” (Waters of March) performed in Portuguese by Brazilian music legends Elis Regina and Tom Jobim (aka Antonio Carlos Jobim). The bridge arrives, bringing something very new along with it, at 1:48!
The Reign of Kindo, a NYC-based quintet which frequently adds lots of extra instrumentation, has been releasing music somewhere between funk, jazz fusion, and progressive rock for over a decade. Featuring a 5/4 time signature, this 2013 tune modulates four times: during an instrumental break (3:13 and 3:20) and again at 3:28 and 3:42.
Seal‘s 1994 track “Prayer for the Dying,” which charted in both the US and the UK, pivots between two keys at each transition between verse and chorus (and vice versa). The title is a little misleading: the track overflows with funk energy and Seal’s trademark enigmatic lyrics. Mods at 1:07, 1:40, 2:01, 2:31, 3:00, and 3:44
“Earth, Wind & Fire held a lofty status as the perhaps the preeminent R&B band in America as they began making their 1979 album I Am,” (American Songwriter). “It was by no means an overnight journey to get to that exalted status. Early in the ‘70s, the Chicago-based outfit labored to find a widespread audience. That all changed in 1975 with the release of the album That’s the Way of the World. Spurred by a No. 1 hit single in ‘Shining Star,’ the album ended up hitting the top of the charts as well. EWF sustained that momentum through a series of smash LPs and singles in the second half of the decade.
Although they wrote much of their own material, the band occasionally looked to outside sources as well. That’s how they nabbed ‘After the Love Has Gone,’ which was penned by a trio of writers who didn’t have any idea they were going to be submitting the song to an R&B band.”
This classic power ballad, co-written by Bill Champlin, David Foster, and Jay Graydon, reached #2 in the USA during the summer of 1979. The first modulation is at 0:53; thereafter, the mods are too numerous to track!
UPDATE, April 2021: We were mistaken … The internet’s friendliest guide to music theory, Charles Cornell, tracked all the key changes!
After becoming Exhibit A for chart-topping synth-pop blockbusters in the early 80s, Duran Duran scored an uncharacteristically understated hit in 1993 with the ballad “Ordinary World.”
Boston-based pianist/bandleader/educator Mark Shilansky and his band Fugue Mill have thoroughly re-harmonized and restructured the tune with their 2014 cover, stacking verse after verse.
Finally, the single extended chorus arrives (at 3:33) with cascading modulations nowhere to be heard in the original.
Q: What do Lisa Loeb, The Spinners, Trey Anastasio, and Milton Nascimento have in common?
A: They’ve all covered the classic R&B tune by the Five Stairsteps, “O-o-h Child.”
Not content to wait for a bridge or a last verse, this 1970 release features modulations starting almost right out of the gate (0:38, between the first verse and the first chorus). The track hit top 10 status in both the US and Canada.
Harmonically, this 1979 tune is such a feast that after several decades of casually listening to it, I never caught on that it actually modulates too. In fact, multiple times: on the way out of the pre-chorus and into the chorus (first heard at 1:17) and then back to the original key (first heard at 1:50), then a second time.
Co-written by Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, the track hit #1 in the US — one of only a handful of non-disco releases to do so in the first half of 1979.
Weekend bonus: Massachusetts-based a capella quintet Vox One delivers a beautiful performance of “Lullay, Thy Little Tiny Child/The Coventry Carol” (2017). Moduation at approximately 1:40, but many other fleeting key-of-the-moment sections, as well as a reversion to the original key.
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